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Human Factor

Caird (2002) reported that many studies related with human factors contributing to accidents at RLC were conducted by many researchers mainly from Australia (Wigglesworth et al., 2001); Sweden (Aberg et al., 1988); Israel (Shinar et al., 1982) and the US (Klein et al., 1994; Lerner et al., 1990).

Familiarity of crossings is found to be the one of the main reason for accidents at RLCs. And on this, Wigglesworth (1978) conducted a case study of accidents occurred in Australia from 1973 to 1977 and he found that 87% of accidents were occurred due to the familiarity of the crossings.

Violation of rules by drivers is another reason for accidents. National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), US investigated in 1998 about 60 accident cases, out of which they found 49 cases were due to driver error. Of those 49 cases, 29 cases include driver's disregard for the stop sign and failure to look for a train. And the remaining cases are related to roadway and track conditions and https://www.51lunwen.org/australiaessay/ affecting the ability of the driver to realize the passive crossing ahead and the attendance of approaching a train. Documented evidence (West Net Rail and Australia Western Railroad et al., July 2002) from train drivers indicates many situations where drivers ignore the signs or signals

Also risky behaviour is also one of the reasons for accidents. A case study was done by Witte in 2000 on 891 residents who are selected randomly in Michigan, and he found that 10 to 20 percent of them tried to beat the train which is considered a risky behaviour.

Slowing down of vehicles when approaching these RLCs is also another contributing factor for accidents (Moon et al., 2003, Ward et al., 1996). This occurs because of the misjudgement of the drivers whether to cross or not at passive crossings due to proper lack of vision.

Other factors such as long times may lead drivers to engage in riskier behaviour at crossings (Berg et al., 1982). This 'deliberate risk taking behaviour' results in major risks, particularly where heavy, long or slow vehicles are involved.

Research on Human Factor

This analysis was done by M W Pickett and G B Grayson, who are Researchers at Transportation Laboratory in Berkshire, UK.

Their study has examined a number of aspects of driver behaviour at level crossings.

A preliminary study was conducted by M W Pickett and G B Grayson in 1996. Their study was carried out on a sample of 419 witness statements which they obtained from the British Transport Police, North East Area. The majority of these statements were taken from drivers who had been observed by British Transport Police Officers violated activated warning systems at level crossings protected by automatic half barriers, and at open crossings.

The statements were analysed and classified according to whether the drivers claimed to have been unwilling to stop, unable to stop, or unaware of the crossing.

The results show that over a half of drivers (55%) were unwilling to stop at level crossings when the warning systems were activated. 13% of drivers were unable to stop, while just over one quarter (27%) claimed to be unaware of either the crossing or the lights, and 5% could not be classified. The reason given for doing this ranged from being late for work to 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。